Nov. 15, 1964 - Henry Cabot Lodge objected strongly today to Senator Barry Goldwater’s proposal to realign the two major political parties into Liberal and Conservative parties. He said the idea was “totally abhorrent to the American two‐party system.”
“That would be going back to the old ideological parties of Europe, and it would be most unfortunate,” Lodge, the 1960 Republican Vice‐Presidential nominee, said on “Meet the Press,” an NBC program. “The thing that makes America great is that we have politicians who form these coalitions.”
Lodge was commenting on statements by Goldwater yesterday at Montego Bay, Jamaica.
The Arizonan, who was vacationing there, said he thought the time might have come to form “two new teams” — a Liberal party (now the Democratic party) and a Conservative party (now the Republican).
Goldwater also blamed moderate Republicans for much of the overwhelming defeat suffered by the Republicans on Nov. 3. In another television interview program shown today — but taped on Friday, before Goldwater spoke —New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller placed himself squarely in opposition to this view.
Rockefeller, one of the moderate Republicans specifically named by Goldwater, pointed out that most of the states, in addition to his own state of New York, had rejected the Republican ticket.
Three other “so-called Republicans” named by Goldwater as having contributed to the wide margin have not yet made any comment on the charge. They are Gov. George Romney of Michigan and Senators Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania and Thomas H. Kuchel of California.
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